Since I'm having a lot of trouble with this next female character, I figured I'd just post the very early stage of what I have and maybe get some help. The hair is only blue to fill in the color for now. It'll change later to brown. I need a lot of help with this. The face seems too narrow to me. And the hair just doesn't look right Please help me any way you can. I want to get this right before moving on.

All comments and criticisms are welcome

I have recently reworked the art of my project and settled with a more River City Ransom style of sprites. There's still a lot to work through, and this latest quick punch animation is still a WIP. But, things are progressing, and in a good direction. This single small animation is all I can share for now. The palette I kept the same from the last version of this character, mostly so I could focus on redrawing the character from scratch. I based this animation off a Guile punch sequence I saw.

Please point anything that looks weird/suggest improvements. It's still not really finished, so I want to finish it soon; hopefully with the help of some good criticism. A friend of mine said the character's left (our right) leg looks like its bulging, such as a muscle flex. I need some help with that because it's suppose to read as if the hip were slightly rotating.

The longer torso version totally works also. I just slightly preferred the shorter one, but I see what you mean about making him look like a kid. To me, both versions are completely acceptable and I was just nit-picking. And sorry to return any doubt to you about the animation . I don't want to discourage you in any way, because your work thus far is looking great.

About the way he's holding the gun; I think as long as he isn't prepared to take steady aim to really shoot something, he's alright with walking with it from the hip. However, in my opinion, if he were to walk with it at the hip I would expect his arm to be a bit lower with his upper arm almost straight and the lower arm bent at about 90 degrees (like an L shape). I think that's just because of the way I interpret this character. That could just be me; it may look funky if you actually tried that.

Oh, and if you do decide to make him take aim in a more proper manner (IE: both hands on the grip with the pistola centered in front of the dominant eye) you might could use this as a reference. Just thought it might help . Keep it up dude, it's going great!

Dude, I could totally see that new head with those weird mandible thingys that predator's have on the sides of their mouth. That's just my opinion though . I think it could fill in some of the narrowness at the bottom of the head. It's looking awesome regardless. I think the whole thing looks more detailed now.

The body with no head; is it gonna stay as an open hole? I was thinking some guts or some kind of insides visible on the outside or around the edges would be nice. But you may want to just keep it an empty void lol.

Out of curiosity, are you the one making the game? Depending on what kinda shmup is it, I think it would be neat-o if the final boss had tiers you must fight through. Something sorta like the Metal Slug mother ship final boss (I can't remember which one). Maybe entering inside the monster or proceeding past his head to take out the rest of the body. I always thought it was cool when the boss would seem defeated, then you discover its just the beginning xD

 Thanks many much for the tips, r1k. I'll try out the palette tweaks as soon as I can. I'll also be experimenting with the shading around the face. What about the rest of the shading? Does it need major work? I feel some-what okay with it, but I dunno.. I might've gotten used to something crappy.